Field
This disclosure is generally related to distribution of digital content. More specifically, this disclosure is related to a system which facilitates a single, standard interface for file input/output and network communication based on an information and data framework in a content centric network.
Related Art
The proliferation of the Internet and e-commerce continues to create a vast amount of digital content. Content centric network (CCN) architectures have been designed to facilitate accessing and processing such digital content. A CCN includes entities, or nodes, such as network clients, forwarders (e.g., routers), and content producers, which communicate with each other by sending interest packets for various content items and receiving content object packets in return. CCN interests and content objects are identified by their unique names, which are typically hierarchically structured variable length identifiers (HSVLI). An HSVLI can include contiguous name components ordered from a most general level to a most specific level. A CCN name prefix, or namespace, may include one or more contiguous name components beginning from the most general level.
CCN relies on an abstraction layer in the form of requests and content responses between applications and the location where content is stored. This abstraction layer is implemented based on a CCN Portal. The CCN Portal API enables messages to be constructed in a location-agnostic manner based on discrete interests and content objects. At the same time, many modern systems and applications rely on a file as a high-level abstraction upon which other data access mechanisms are implemented (e.g., video streams, databases, messages, and key-values stores). While CCN interests and content objects may serve as a vehicle for transferring raw data, some issues remain unsolved with using CCN interests and content objects as the aforementioned abstractions without another layer of indirection.